Atoms For Peace’s Nigel Godrich: ‘I’m not bitching about not getting paid’

The producer recently removed all of Atoms For Peace's music from the streaming site

Nigel Godrich has expanded on his reasons for taking all of Atoms For Peace‘s music down from Spotify, following claims that the streaming service is “bad for new music.”

Again taking to his Twitter account, he stated: “I’m not bitching about not getting paid. It’s about standing up for other artists rights.” Following his former point – “The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model. It’s an equation that just doesn’t work” – he went on to thank fans for getting involved in the discussion, saying: “Thanks for all the comments received about the streaming/spotify model issue. I would say its about 70% positive and supportive 10% negative and 20% confused.”

Godrich went on to allege that Spotify has done ‘secret deals’ with big record labels, cutting smaller producers and labels out of any significant payouts from the service. He wrote: “The way that spotify works is that the money is divided up by percentage of total streams. Big labels have massive back catalogues so their 40 year old record by a dead artist earns them the same slice of the pie as a brand new track by a new artist. The big labels did secret deals with spotify and the like in return for favourable royalty rates. The massive amount of catalogue being streamed guarantees that they get the big massive slice of the pie (that $500 million) and the smaller producers and labels get pittance for their comparitavely few streams. This is whats wrong.”

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He added: “I’m not bitching about not getting paid. It’s about standing up for other artists rights. It’s up to streaming providers to come back with a better way of supporting new music producers.. It’s not for us to think up how it could work.. That’s your department. Over.. That’s all I gotta say really. Sorry for the rant.”

Earlier today Spotify responded to Godrich’s complaints via NME, telling us that its long-term goal is to make sure artists are properly remunerated for putting their music on the service: “Spotify’s goal is to grow a service which people love, ultimately want to pay for, and which will provide the financial support to the music industry necessary to invest in new talent and music. We want to help artists connect with their fans, find new audiences, grow their fan base and make a living from the music we all love.”

As well as the removal of ‘Amok’, Godrich has also removed his band Ultraista’s debut album from Spotify while Thom Yorke’s solo album ‘The Eraser’ has also been taken down from the streaming service.

Atoms For Peace will play three UK live shows as part of a European tour set to take place in July. The band will play London’s Roundhouse between July 24-26. To check the availability of Atoms For Peace tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.

Blog: MJ from Hookworms explains where he stands on Spotify as a member of a new band and producer for others.

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